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| Family compound with two houses and guest house around Japanese garden. Passive solar. Cedar and fir. |
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Organic Architecture
is based upon a fundamental respect for site-specific form, function
and material resulting in a design solution in perfect harmony with the
environment. This architecture is deeply embedded in the particular:
client, designer, time, site and region. It eschews mimicry of
overwrought, conventional styles, shock value, pastiche elements, and
superfluous ornamentation. The result is a powerful, graceful solution
to the complex equation of the principles of nature and the distinctive
character of the client, a unique structure carefully designed for
living, growing, thriving.
Alex Riley Associates is
dedicated to creating a living space as a coherent whole, an intimate
marriage of context and structure, function and form. Our design is
predicated by a few basic principles. We ensure that each structure
occupies the site in relation to the fundamental priorities of graceful
living: appropriate scale, abundant light, maximized sensitivity to the
patterns of the seasons, physical security and spiritual well-being.
The result–a combination of the unique artistic vision and experience
of the designer, in consultation with the client–is superb.
Site selection
can be a daunting prospect. Alex Riley Associates will gladly provide
consultation to you and your realtor prior to purchase, assessing the
strengths and weaknesses of the site, identifying possible problems to
be solved, and offering creative solutions. After site selection, we
see to acquiring soils reports, information on ordinances and permits,
and the vast array of preliminaries to building a home.
Addition/remodels
are particularly challenging. In many cases, a fundamental flaw in the
original structure must be reconfigured: poor light, awkward
circulation spaces, inappropriate scale, uncomfortable flow, incorrect
positioning in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of the site.
Alex Riley Associates has remodeled more than 50 existing homes and
commercial structures, successfully making the building “work on the
site.” Good design necessitates graceful flow without jarring breaks of
continuity and obvious afterthoughts. We carefully assess the site, the
existing structure, and the needs of the client. The process typically
includes opening up inside spaces to the outside, rearranging internal
space so that it relates harmoniously to the external, providing new
accesses, reconfiguring living and circulation spaces, solving problems
of road noise, blighted views or too-close neighbors. We also provide
design expertise in landscape architecture, creatively grading a site
to enhance the structure’s natural setting, perceptively placing
gardens, arbors, defined walkways and sensitively handling existing
flora and trees. We understand an addition/remodel as the
transformation of an environment into a cohesive, and beautiful whole,
freshly adapted, yet timeless.
Current projects include a 52,000
square foot addition/remodel to the Nelson Memorial Library at Pacific
Union College in the Napa Valley.
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